Hevilift's P2-KSW flew back to Papua New Guinea, via Horn Island on 30-Aug-2014. A photograph of this aircraft was seen in the blog on 21-Aug-2014, in an all white scheme with black Hevilift titles. Of the three former Airlines PNG aircraft that flew into Cairns during Nov/Dec-2013, MSN 703 is the only one that had not so far been re-registered to Hevilift in the P2-KS_ series. It had arrived in Cairns on 04-Dec-2013. It has however not appeared on the most recently available PNG Civil Aircraft Register.

Friday, 29 August 2014

N564D arrived safely in McMinnville, OR on 27-Aug-2014, completing the flight from Honolulu in 14 hours and 51 minutes. On arrival there the ferry tanks were removed in preparation for the continuation of its delivery flight. This morning, the aircraft has departed McMinnville, initially bound for Kemmerer, WY.

The identity of the aircraft that flew Mactan-Cebu, Philippines to Guam on 23-Aug-2014 has been identified below as N564D. This is the former Lao Skyway RDPL-34179.

593 - DHC-6-300 N564D AMS Cloud TO 593 LLC, Delray Beach FL

24-Aug-2014as SXA1158

Guam (PGUM/GUM) - Majuro, Marshall Islands (PKMJ/MAJ)

Operator News

The first Viking Series 400 Twin Otter to be delivered to Russian based Plastun Avia was officially handed over in a ceremony at Vladivostok on 23-Aug-2014. The aircraft is operated in Aurora Air Company colours and will be flown in the Primorye region.

K2 Smart Jets of Athens, Greece has announced their entrance into the seaplane market under the name of Airwaves. In 2013 K2 acquired a 50% interest in Water Airports S.A., a company specializing in development, licensing and management of sea aerodromes. Currently, K2 Smart Jets operate an Embraer Legacy, and a Citation 560XLS from their base at Athens.

The first areas of operation are expected to be in the regions of Lokron, Almiro, Kalamata and Syros where the company has already approached the municipal authorities.

Sources in Greece indicate the company has secured two DHC-6-400s and continues negotiations for a further four options. Operations are slated to begin in 2015.

A few photographs for Sunday morning; the latest Series 400 from Tim Martin, a group shot from Iquitos and lastly a couple from Iqaluit. The photographer responsible for the last two has some great shots of many different types at Iqaluit. Click on the credit on either photo to take a look.

Wednesday, 20 August 2014

C-GLVA has departed the Ikhana facility today, initially bound for Redding, then continuing on to Victoria. The aircraft had arrived in Murrieta on 22-May-2014, and is ultimately destined for the United Arab Emirates. It is seen below in Victoria on arrival from the paint shop in Spokane back in Mar-2014.

Although the route back from Brazil mirrored the southbound trip until reaching the U.S. mainland, C-FVGY is now hitting some new locations as it returns to Canada. To date, including the sector to Casper, WY by my count the aircraft has flown 36 legs, encompassing just over 14,000 miles.

Former R.C.M.P. Air Services DHC-6-300 MSN 320 was acquired by Calgary's Avmax Aircraft Leasing earlier this year and it arrived on delivery on 08-Mar-2014. The aircraft is seen below outside the company facility in Calgary yesterday, still in R.C.M.P. colours, but with the addition of Avmax logos to the fuselage and tail. Heading to Chad?

Although I'd like to see a photograph of N902VK in Honolulu just to conclusively tie things up, everything points to it being SXA1159. Last noted in Concord, CA on 11-Aug-2014, the aircraft was photographed at McMinnville a few days ago.

MSN 871 N901VK has continued to be noted at various locations (usually bodies of water) around the California Inland Empire region over the past week. It remains on amphibious floats.

895 - DHC-6-400 C-GVVA Viking Air Ltd., Sidney, BC

19-Aug-2014

Portland, OR (KPDX/PDX) - Sacramento-Int'l., CA (KSMF/SMF)

Sacramento-Int'l., CA (KSMF/SMF) - Fullerton, CA (KFUL/FUL)

C-GVVA can be seen below taxiing at Victoria back in Mar-2014. The aircraft carries the same paint scheme as MSN 856, which was delivered to Minera Barrick in 2012 and became OB-2024.

Houston, TX based Hilcorp Energy has considerable assets in Alaska's Cook Inlet, and in Apr-2014 acquired four oilfields on the North Slope from BP in a transaction valued at $2.6 billion. The company also operates two Bell 212 helicopters in Alaska.

The Aurora Air Company delivery has commenced from Altenrhein, Switzerland. The aircraft had arrived there on 08-Sep-2013 for work required to bring it to customer standards (it was not originally destined for Russia). From Mar-2014 to Jul-2014 it was positioned over to Bratislava, Slovakia for additional work/painting, and eventually returned to Altenrhein again on 02-Jul-2014. Over the next days the aircraft should make its way towards Aurora's home base at Vladivostok.

Saturday, 16 August 2014

MSN 872 definitely appears to be the remaining aircraft in Murrieta, or at least in southern California. Today it has filed a local flight plan from the Thermal, CA airport (southeast of Palm Springs), while it also appears to have made a trip to Lake Havasu, AZ in the past couple of days as well.

Registration cancelled 15-Aug-2014 on export to U.S.A. This aircraft was delivered Victoria, BC - Portland, OR on 14-Aug-2014. Being a weekend, the FAA data indicating the new U.S. registration is not currently available.

Thursday, 14 August 2014

This was Viking's first visit to the Brazilian LABACE exhibition, and unfortunately the star product was unable to take its place in front of the Viking display chalet. In spite of arriving in Sao Paulo three days before the show start, following a fairly grueling eighteen stop ferry flight from Canada, the aircraft was not cleared for display by Brazilian customs officials.

Viking has identified Latin America as a strategic market going forward, and there are already a significant number of Series 400's working in South America. Although the legacy Twin Otter achieved good market penetration in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela - the same could not be said with Brazil. The locally produced EMB-110 Bandeirante, similar in size to the Twin Otter effectively kept the more versatile Canadian built airplane from ever getting a foothold in the large Brazilian market. Production of the Bandeirante ended in 1991 and now the next generation Twin Otter may finally benefit from a level playing field in Brazil.

The aircraft scheduled for display in Sao Paulo (SN 900 C-FVGY) is now returning to Canada, so far via the same route it took southbound.

I hadn't actually caught this one on the 11-Aug, so thanks to Nigel at Aviation Letter for pointing it out. I would presume this to be the aircraft that had originally been filed as N869VK, on a Murrieta to McMinville routing. I am also thinking that the stop in Concord has replaced McMinnville for the installation of ferry tanks

This should leave MSN 872 N901VK as the final aircraft still in Murietta....I think ;-)

Wednesday, 13 August 2014

The Viking Series 400 Photo Gallery has had a slight format change, as well as a full image update with many new items up to MSN 905. There are now more than 275 Series 400 photographs in this single gallery, more than anywhere else on the web.

I'd particularly like to thank Tim Martin in Victoria for always managing to bring us the latest arrivals at the Viking facility there.

The page link to the Series 400 Gallery is on the left of your screen, just below the TwinOtterArchive logo.

If the registration details and MSN are correct, this would be the former VH-OTA of Sydney Skydiving, which all records indicate was withdrawn from use in 2005, and subsequently dismantled. We know that CJ Aerospace is a major parts supplier, so has MSN 90 actually been rebuilt, and heading for Suriname?

Flight plans for the privately owned N323SJ popped up today, and the aircraft landed in San Francisco a short while ago. The two flights above are the first noted since last summer when it was operating in Montana.

Photographed in Calgary on 09-Aug-2014 was this wreckage, which appears to have recently arrived (or perhaps been moved outside) Although there are no registration marks, it looks like it should be MSN 8, C-FCCE which was involved in a take-off accident at La Ronge, SK back in Apr-2009.

This one is proving to be a bit of a mystery, as the registration it is filed under is not actually currently active in the FAA system, as it was assigned to MSN 867 which was delivered to Vietnam in Mar-2014.

I would expect this to be either one of the two Vietnam airframes that have been at Ikhana, which should be MSN 872 N901VK or MSN 885 N902VK.

N515AR has crossed the Atlantic once again, and is so far in Scotland. The aircraft was previously in the United Kingdom in May of 2013.

557 - DHC-6-300 9A-TOA European Coastal Airlines, Zagreb

09-Aug-2014

Bern, Switzerland (LSZB/BRN) - Sonderborg, Denmark (EKSB/SGD)

It looks as though the first Twin Otter for Croatia's European Coastal has left the RUAG facility in Bern, Switzerland where it was receiving work prior to entry into service.

878 - DHC-6-400 N514RN NASS Holdings LLC, Titusville, FL

09-Aug-2014

Titusville, FL (KTIX/TIX) - Burlington, VT (KBTV/BTV)

Burlington, VT (KBTV/BTV) - St. John's, NL (CYYT/YYT)

10-Aug-2014 Planned

St. John's, NL (CYYT/YYT) - Santa Maria, Azores (LPAZ/SMA)

The next delivery for the United Arab Emirates continues, and if previous aircraft are any indication we should expect the next stops after the Azores to be in the Balearic Islands of Spain, and then on to Crete, in Greece.

906 - DHC-6-400 C-GVTU Viking Air Ltd., Sidney, BC

10-Aug-2014

Calgary, AB (CYYC/YYC) - Spokane, WA (KGEG/GEG)

Photo Update

The Pacific Sky DHC-6-400 C-FGAL was positioned over to Abbotsford, BC on 08-Aug-2014 during the Abbotsford Air Show.

With thanks to Jason Pineau, a nice shot of MSN 355 C-FCSW of North-Wright Airways, which is currently operating on lease to Summit Air in Yellowknife. Jason has a great selection of photographs here: Jason Pineau Photostream

C-FVGY is approaching the city of Sao Paulo, where it will be displayed at the 2014 LABACE Exhibition and Convention. The aircraft originally departed Victoria, BC on 03-Aug-2014, and included a total of 18 stops prior to reaching Sao Paulo.

Photo Update

The Peruvian airplanes have a habit of leaving Victoria rather quietly, so it is nice to see Tim Martin's shot of FAP 309 below.

ch-aviation

Twin Otter Classified Advertising

The Publisher

AviaTube Aviation Videos

Helping Business Fly

TwinOtterArchive

DHC-2.com

DHC-3 Archive

Regional Turboprop Spotter

CRJSpotter

Contacting The Editor

Any and all editorial or photographic contributions are greatly appreciated. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask. You may contact me using the "Contact the Editor" form in the right column - or - send an email to DHC6300 "at" gmail.com

The work and time taken to produce TwinOtterSpotter is made possible by financial contributions from our readers. Please consider making a Paypal contribution via the link - payments can be made securely, and directly from your credit card.

TwinOtterSpotter is not affiliated in any way with either Viking Aircraft, or Bombardier.